Gross Suppression Of Facts, Petitioner Himself Contesting Candidate: Calcutta HC Imposes 50K Cost On Plea Alleging Fake Caste Certificate For Elections

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday while hearing a plea alleging issuance of fake Scheduled caste certificate to a candidate contesting from a scheduled caste constituency, imposed costs to the tune of Rs. 50,000 on the petitioner for suppressing the fact that he himself was also a contesting candidate in the concerned Bidhannagar municipal polls.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj observed, 

"The fact now revealed by the respondents shows that the petition is by one contesting candidate against another. This fact has changed the entire complexion of the case. Hence, we dismiss this writ petition by imposing costs of 50,000/- which is to be deposited by the petitioner with the Legal Services Authority within a period of two weeks from today."

Opining that the conduct of the petitioner amounts to 'gross suppression of facts', the Court further underscored,

"The petitioner has suppressed this fact in the petition that he is one of the candidates contesting election of concerned municipal corporation. This amounts to gross suppression of fact and the present writ petition is liable to be dismissed with costs on the sole ground of suppressing the fact."

In the instant case, the petitioner alleged that although ward number 20 constituency of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has been reserved exclusively for candidates belonging to the Scheduled caste community, the respondent one Prasenjit Nag has decided to contest from the concerned constituency by obtaining a fake schedule caste certificate. 

Furthermore, the petitioner had sought for a direction to produce the record pertaining to grant of Scheduled Caste Certificate by the Sub-Divisional Officer to the respondent, He had further contended that the Director General of Police must be asked to investigate into the status of the ancestors and other family members of the respondent so as to find out whether any of the relatives possess any scheduled caste certificate. 

The petitioner had also prayed for a direction to be issued to the State to look for records to find out whether the respondent had availed any benefit reserved for scheduled caste students during his academic pursuits. 

During the hearing, a preliminary objection had been raised by the State Election Commission that the petitioner is also a contesting independent candidate for the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation election, however he had not disclosed this fact in his petition. 

Expressing strong reservations to such a suppression of fact, the Court further recorded in its order, 

"A document has been produced relating to the proceedings of scrutiny of nomination paper of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, 2022 which reveals that the petitioner is one of the independent candidates for the election. Learned counsel for the petitioner has also not disputed this fact."

Accordingly, the petitioner dismissed the petition by imposing costs to the tune of Rs 50,000 upon the petitioner. 

Case Title: Tapan Saha v. State Election Commissioner & Ors

Case Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Cal) 37

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